Invalid Patents

On August 21, 2012, the USPTO issued 5,325 utility patents – a new record. Greg Aharonian has suggested that more than 50% of these recently issued patents “are invalid.” In other words, if the USPTO had sufficient information and decision making skills and had been acting properly it would have refused to issue more than half of these patents in their current form. This survey considers what other patent law professionals think about patent validity.

*
1.What percent of these recently issued patents would you speculate have at least one invalid claim?

90-100%

80-90%

70-80%

60-70%

50-60%

40-50%

30-40%

20-30%

10-20%

0-10%

90-100%

80-90%

70-80%

60-70%

50-60%

40-50%

30-40%

20-30%

10-20%

0-10%

*
2.Of these recently issued patents, what percent would you speculate are entirely invalid (i.e., have no valid claims).

90-100%

80-90%

70-80%

60-70%

50-60%

40-50%

30-40%

20-30%

10-20%

0-10%

90-100%

80-90%

70-80%

60-70%

50-60%

40-50%

30-40%

20-30%

10-20%

0-10%

*
3.Of these recently issued patents, what percent would you speculate will ever actually be invalidated?